Joanna Kavenna
Tripping the Circuits
Martin John
By Anakana Schofield
And Other Stories 320pp £10
Where do we go from modernism, dear reader? You might not want to go anywhere, which is perfectly fair enough. Or you might argue that ‘modernism’ is an arbitrary category, a taxonomical illusion – also, fair enough. It’s undeniable that the literary revolutions of the early 20th century – games with form and stream of consciousness – have defined the avant-garde ever since. Yet when formal experimentation has become a stock signal of revolution, isn’t that precisely the sort of convention that a revolutionary should abhor? But where else do you go? Back to 19th-century realism? Or prose so manically chopped up that it makes Finnegans Wake look like Harry Potter? Are we stuck with perpetual reiterations of a vanished revolution – tribute modernism, in short? And aren’t these antiquarian subversions really just a form of cultural nostalgia, like being a Romantic poet in 1915?
Anakana Schofield’s second novel, Martin John, which was shortlisted for Canada’s Giller Prize, supplies a wonderfully provocative and ultimately profound response to all of the above. Schofield’s first novel, Malarky (2012), was an acerbic black comedy set in Ireland, starring ‘Our Woman’ and her son. In Martin John, Schofield portrays
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
When @djbduncan notices the text for a literary jigsaw puzzle had been written by a former colleague, his head spins. A wild surmise. Are jigsaws REF-able?
Dennis Duncan - The W Factor
Dennis Duncan: The W Factor
literaryreview.co.uk
In an effort to scold drinkers, Victorian temperance societies furiously marked every drinking establishment with a red X on city maps. It was a spectacular case of propaganda backfiring.
@foxtosser explores the history of drink maps
Edward Brooke-Hitching - From Beer Street to Gin Lane
Edward Brooke-Hitching: From Beer Street to Gin Lane - Drink Maps in Victorian Britain by Kris Butler
literaryreview.co.uk
How did a workers’ insurance agent who died of tuberculosis at the age of forty become a global literary icon?
@MortenHoiJensen on Kafka's metamorphosis
Morten Høi Jensen - Paranoid Humanoid
Morten Høi Jensen: Paranoid Humanoid - Metamorphoses: In Search of Franz Kafka by Karolina Watroba; Kafka: Making o...
literaryreview.co.uk